Prix Pictet - Azafady in Paris

Posted on 26 October 2009

On Thursday, for the Prix Pictet European opening, a team from Azafady all jumped on the Eurostar to Paris, including, Mark Jacobs (Managing Director), Barbara Leenen (Trustee), Geoff Latham (Website & IT), Gaby Smith (Project Development Coordinator), Sarah Lamb (Volunteer Coordinator), Meg Burley (Volunteer Coordinator), Martina Di Benedetto (Project Development) and Claude Zanard (Communications).

In Paris we met the Prix Pictet team at the second opening of the short-listed photographers and the announcement of the award. The Azafady team marvelled at the hard-hitting and stunning photography, which all conveys the message of sustainability, and listened intently to a speech by Kofi Annan, the honorary president of the Prix Pictet, who emphasised that the photographs were a compelling call to action to tackle climate change. It was then announced that the photographer Nadav Kandar was selected for the grand prize with his series of photos based around the Yangtze River. Ed Kashi was selected as the photographer to fulfil Pictet’s commission, to raise awareness of sustainability in specific reference to Azafady’s projects in southeast Madagascar, including project Volyhazo, so generously funded as part of this years Prix Pictet by Pictet & Cie. Everyone at Azafady is extremely excited for the opportunity to work with Ed to fulfil the core of the Prix Pictet mission; to highlight issues of sustainability, with specific emphasis to this year’s theme of Earth, and to document the work of Azafady in promoting sustainable development.

More news to come soon on the build up to Ed’s commission visit in January 2010 as well as more photos from Paris.